Michèle Noach

Michele Noach
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Michèle Noach

Michèle Noach

Michèle Noach was born in Australia and lived in The Netherlands & USA before her family settled in London in the last hours of the 1960s. She kept pet mice, listened to the Velvet Underground and The Damned and gazed at a lot of George Herriman, Jean Dubuffet, André François and Ronald Searle. Keen on code-breaking, she has been a cryptic crossword compiler, sign language interpreter and arts writer. Whilst travelling around the States and Australia (where she was bitten by a spider) in the '80s, she wrote for various publications (incl. NME, i-D, Event, Seattle's The Rocket, Boston Rock, Sydney's Stiletto, Amnesty Magazine). She trained in print-making in the late '80s and has worked as an artist since then, specialising in lenticulars (optical 3D images). Her first solo exhibition was Night Trick Acid at the Almeida Theatre in 1993. She was artist-in-residence at Liberty's of London in 1994.

Her 2005 show Nø-âch's Ârc-tìc at the Curwen Gallery reflected her expedition to Svalbard with Cape Farewell (science & art-based environmental organisation), when she sailed as far North as it is possible to do, on a 1909 Dutch schooner. In the same year her series of lenticular 'measuring devices', The Arctic Feel-O-Graphs was shown at The Natural History Museum in London. A second Arctic voyage to Greenland in 2008 on a research vessel also left its polar mark: she has been archiving, with comparative lenticulars, the retreating glaciers of the Far North in an ongoing series Through The Ice, Darkly, the product of physically tracking glaciers in and below the Arctic Circle. This series has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Kings’ Place in London, Parsons in New York, Beijing at The Central Academy of Fine Arts, The University of Applied Arts in Vienna and in 2016 in its updated entirety, The Chicago Academy of Sciences. The project was part-funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy.

From 2009 Michèle was artist-in-residence at the Eden Project in a 3-year collaboration, studying with horticulturist Dr. Ian Martin the adaptive behaviour of Arctic poppies. This was the subject of The Arctic Poppy Chronicles, her 2012 show at Eden and Poppyflakes, a book about art/science collaborations. This show travelled to the University of Oxford Botanic Garden in spring 2013. In 2008, also in Cornwall, she exhibited her lenticular installation The Glasshouse Men in the greenhouses of The Lost Gardens of Heligan, celebrating the lives of the gardeners who were lost in WW1.

Defying the odds, in 2009 she was bitten by a spider again.

In 2015 she was invited for a month’s artist residency to Vadsø in Finnmark, inside the Arctic Circle. As part of the residency she organised a tiny music festival, Ice Station Vadsø which sold out in ten minutes. She took part in a Finnmark group show Ice Art and had a solo show Vadsø: Twenty Skies, featuring monoprints she completed while there.

The festival has since become a regular feature, with Sun Station Vadsø in 2017 and Snow Station Vadsø rescheduled after its pandemic pause. The festival, though still small, has expanded to encompass art, science, film and literature, with a gentle climate theme running through it. In 2017 Michèle took a smaller version of the festival, Ice Station Japan to Kyoto and Tokyo, and had a solo art show in Shibuya's Tambourin Gallery.

In 2017 she won the Norwegian Kulturpris for services to Finnmark.

In 2018 Arktictology: The Guovdageaidnu Series, an exhibition celebrating Arctic spring was held in Finnmark. She produced a documentary about the Vadsø festival with film-makers Colin Izod and Duncan Harris.

She produced two videos for The Dream Syndicate, Filter Me Through You (2017) and How Did I Find Myself Here? (2018) both filmed in the Arctic with Nick Edwards and Jamie Quantrill.

Michèle is currently directing Moose Latitudes, an artist’s documentary about life in Finnmark, This film takes an unapologetically subjective look at the effects of an increasingly chaotic climate on Sami communities and Norwegian Arctic life in general. The film is due for release in 2024.

Between 2004 and 2011 she organised a series of gigs with landlord Deke Eichler at The 3 Kings pub in Clerkenwell, which raised over £45,000 for Médecins Sans Frontières. Deke now runs the superb Rose In June pub in Margate.

Michèle is still working on Compound, an advertising campaign directed at wealthy insects.

 

Selected Exhibitions

2023 Ice Station RGSProgramme director for first ever, one-night culture and climate festival at the Royal Geographical Society, London.
2022 Artists From the Curwen Bermondsey Project Space
2022 LISTEN Gunnersbury Park Museum
2020 Vadsø Kunstforening Gallerikiosken, Norway
2018 Weather To Climate US Space and Rocket Centre, Alabama
Opening of Parliament Public Space at Finnmark Parliament
Arktictology Gjestatelier, Vadsø
2017 Ice Station Tambourin Gallery, Tokyo
Spoilt Rotten Notting Hill, London
Solar Flare Ruija Kvenmuseum, Norway
2016 Weather To Climate: Our Changing World Chicago Academy of Sciences
Michèle Noach at Chief Coffee Chiswick, London
2015 Arctic High North Artist-in-residence Vadsø, Finnmark, Norway
Vadsø: Twenty Skies Gjesteatelieret (solo)
Ice Station Vadsø 2-Day music festival (sold out), Arctic Circle
Displacement: Island Tables Geneva, Switzerland
Tiny Carnival 100 Union Yard, London
2014 The Christmas Show Curwen Gallery, London
Stillville 100 Union Yard, London
2014 Crash, Bang, Wallop Will's Art Warehouse, London
AAF, HKCEC, Hong Kong
2013 Instructions: Tilt To and Fro Paul Stolper Gallery, London
Our Time In Ice  ONCA Gallery, Brighton
Digital Design at the V&A Victoria & Albert Museum, London
2012 The Christmas Show Curwen Gallery, London
The Miniature Show The Rectory Gallery, London
Go With The Flø Studio Hugo Opdal, Flø, Norway
The Arctic Poppy Chronicles Eden Project, Cornwall
Rejuvenation Curwen Gallery, London
25/30, Anniversary show, Curwen Gallery, London
2011 U-n-f-o-l-d, Parsons New School of Design, New York
Mail Art, A&D Gallery, London
Midsummer Nightvison, Art@42, London
U-n-f-o-l-d, Museum of Contemporary Photography & Columbia University, Chicago
Plaform P, The Duke of Cornwall, Plymouth
2010 U-n-f-o-l-d, University of the Applied Arts, Vienna
A is for..., Wills Art Warehouse, London
Trajector Art Fair, Brussels
Art & Climate Change, Cranbrook Art Museum, Michigan
2009 A Mice Too Far, The Rectory at Spitalfields, London
Salisbury International Arts Festival
Artist-in-Residence, (3 year programme), Eden Project, Cornwall
2008 One Mouse, One Dollar, No Refund, Curwen & New Academy, London
The Glasshouse Men, The Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall
Art & Climate Change, Miraikan, Tokyo
Arte Climàtico, La Fundaciòn, Madrid
2007 Kunst und Klimawandel, The Kampnagel, Hamburg
Cape Farewell, John Moore's University, Liverpool Biennial
A Place To Be, Bumbershoot, Seattle
2006 The Ship, Natural History Museum, London
2005 Nø-âch's Ârc-tìc, Curwen & New Academy, London
The Diabolosphere, Victrola, Seattle
Victorian Fly Syndrome, Leeds City Art Gallery

Recent Talks

2013 The Flower at The Top of The World The Top of The World Lecture on Michèle's Arctic Poppy research project with Prof. Mølgaard and Dr. Ian Martin. Science Museum, London
Our Time In Ice Lecture on work created as a Cape Farewell artist. ONCA Gallery, Brighton
2012 Chasing Ice On panel discussing James Balog's film about glaciers, Curzon Soho, London
The Eden Project on Arctic Poppies, Cornwall
2011 The Eden Project with Charlie Kronick (Senior Climate Advisor, Greenpeace)
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
Columbia University, Chicago
2010 Northumbria University with Dr. Carol Cotterill (marine & coastal geoscientist)
Miners' Institute with Chris Wainwright (Head of CCW, University of the Arts), Newcastle
U-n-f-o-l-d, Kings Place, London
Southbank Centre, SHIFT festival debate with Jude Kelly, David Buckland, Chris Wainwright
2009 Bergen Royal Art College, Keynote Speaker at Sensuous Knowledge Conference
Tate Britain: Late at Tate, with Sunand Prasad (president, RIBA) & Ruth Little (Literary Director, Royal Court Theatre)
2008 Science Museum, with Cape Farewell artists Tracey Rowledge & Francesca Galeazzi

Selected Projects

Publications

  • Expedition, Essay and artwork on the idea of 'expedition'. Pub. CCW Graduate School ISBN 978-1-9008339-03-4
  • Klimatilpasning, Glacier and poppy images featured in this collection of essays about climate adaptation, co-published by University of Oslo View
  • Poppyflakes, documenting the Arctic Poppy research study at The Eden Project through correspondence between horticulturist Ian Martin and artist Michèle Noach, pub. Eden Project & Cape Farewell, 2012 View
  • U-n-f-o-l-d, essay & artworks, pub. Springer, ISBN 978-3-7091-0220-6
  • Burning Ice, essay & artworks, pub. Cape Farewell, ISBN 0-9553109-0-3 View
  • Context Reports 2007-11, cover & illustrations
  • Climate Change Handbook, cover & illustrations, pub. Context
  • The Fundamentals of Sonic Art and Sound Design, photography, pub. AVA View
  • Tackling Climate Change, cover & illustrations, pub. WPP
  • TIC Minibook, illustrations, pub. Tomlinson IC
  • Heligan History: Lost Gardens, Lost Gardeners, artwork,
    pub. Heligan ISBN 9-900000-109783

Set Design

  • KT Tunstall, The Tabernacle, 2011
  • SHIFT Festival, QEH, Southbank Centre, 2010 1 2 3
  • Amiina & Shlomo, QEH, Southbank Centre, 2009 1 2
  • I Often Dream of Trains, Robyn Hitchcock, Symphony Space New York 1
    2009 (with Sam Collins)
  • Pestival, Southbank Centre, 2009 1 2 3 4

Films

  • There Goes The Ice (short), art director Watch
  • Ordinary Millionaire (short), art director Watch
  • The Day Before Boxing Day (short), art director Watch
  • Tony Eats His Words (short), Watch
    co-director/producer 'Partners in Slime' with Max Eastley and Nick Edwards
  • Art From A Changing Arctic (feature), BBC 2005, (appears in) Info | Review
  • The Glasshouse Men (artist film), The Lost Gardens of Heligan Watch

Albums

  • Jewels For Sophia, Robyn Hitchcock, cover View
  • Luxor, Robyn Hitchcock, cover
  • Spooked, Robyn Hitchcock w/Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, photographs View
  • Goodnight Oslo, Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3, cover View
  • Propellor Time, Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3, photographs View
  • Tromsø, Kaptein, Robyn Hitchcock, photographs View

More

  • Architecture Week Podcast, Michèle Noach's Podwalk by Ruby WrightListen
  • Cartoons commissioned for the Context website View
  • Expedition Blog, Cape Farewell 2004 Expedition View
  • CO2x3, collaborative lenticular by Sunand Prasad (RIBA) and Michèle Noach View
  • Polar Where?, lenticular collaboration with Sarah Fletcher (National Oceanography Centre, Southampton) View

Press

Reviews

  • Time Out Chicago on U-n-f-o-l-d View
  • New Scientist on U-n-f-o-l-d View

Interviews

  • BBC Radio Cornwall on The Glasshouse Men Listen
  • U-n-f-o-l-d, artist interviews Watch